Former BOC exec is new OCD administrator
PRESIDENT Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. has appointed former Bureau of Customs (BOC) deputy commissioner for enforcement, Ariel Nepomuceno, as administrator of the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) with the rank of undersecretary.
The OCD is the main government body supervising one of its most crucial operations arms, the National Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) that handles all government responses during calamities and disasters.
Nepomuceno replaced Undersecretary Raymundo Ferrer, who was OCD officer-in-charge for some 4 months.
Last December 28, 2022, Malacañan released a photo of Nepomuceno taking his oath of office before Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and witnessed by one of his friends, Alex Irasga, who is an adviser at Parish of St. John the Baptist (Quiapo Church).
In a brief talk with Pinoy Exposé, Nepomuceno said he took the job at the OCD because it is a “real job” with “many challenges.”
Aware of the immense responsibility now placed on his shoulders, Nepomuceno, the following day, immediately went to the OCD’s office in Camp Aguinaldo.
It would also be a sort of “homecoming” for Nepomuceno at the OCD, noted Department of National Defense Officer-In-Charge and former Armed Forces chief of staff, Jose Faustino, who led the welcome for Nepomuceno.
Nepomuceno previously served as the OCD’s executive officer during the Aquino administration, for nearly a year, from 2010 to 2011.
A product of the University of the Philippines, Nepomuceno graduated as ‘magna cum laude’ and was also recognized by the university as its “most outstanding graduate” of social sciences in 1989. He also earned an executive MBA from the Asian Institute of Management and was a member of the ‘Hinirang Class of 1987,’ Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and also had a short stint as a field reporter for ABS-CBN.
In December 2013, Nepomuceno was appointed by President Begnino ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III to the BOC as deputy commissioner of the Enforcement Group (EG).
The EG supervises the operations of the Customs Police (Enforcement Security Service, ESS) one of the most crucial anti-smuggling arms of the government.
It was during his stint as ‘DCE’ (Deputy Commissioner for Enforcement) that the BOC was started to be recognized for its contributions to the government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign, seizing the biggest number of illegal drugs in terms of value that is even higher than the accomplishments of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
It was also Nepomuceno who led in the apprehension and the filing of charges against the importer of the so-called ‘Canada trash’ that was brought into the country in the last quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014.
In 2015, the year that the ‘Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act’ (RA 10845) became law, Nepomuceno also initiated the filing of the BOC’s ‘test case’ of using the new law to combat smuggling thru the filing of cases for ‘economic sabotage,’ a non-bailable offense, against rice smugglers.
The same year, Nepomuceno also led in the apprehension of some 14 high-end, brand new, luxury vehicles at the Port of Batangas that sparked a congressional inquiry.
Although he was reappointed by President Rodrigo Duterte in November 2017 as the first head of the Post Clearance Audit Group (PCAG), Nepomuceno still went on to resign from the BOC in February 2018, deciding instead to focus on his family and business.
Nepomuceno is the only known high-ranking official to willingly resign from a powerful position at the BOC.
